Exploding offer with two flyouts remaining

Economist4d09

When I was hiring chair, I'd make offers with no firm deadline, but tell the candidate that we'll check back in a week and that if we become interested in making an offer to someone else, we may need to call and ask for a quick (e.g., 48 hour) answer. Seems fair to both sides.

If a school gives you a 2-day fuse now, the reason is that they think you a probably too good for them and won't accept if you have more time. My school would never do that.

No, the reason is that their second choice candidate is also very good. They don't want to lose both. Two-day fuses come about when the hiring committee has a very close vote. Like a vote of 5-5, or 5-4. Go after the top person, but with a short fuse, then if the answer is no, move the second person, who is as good as the first, really.

If that is true this makes no sense. The second choice will then get a longer time to think and less stress should the first one decline having to make his decision in a rush under stress

Yes, this is common. The closer the top candidates, the shorter the fuse. You don't want to have the second one accept an offer while you are waiting around for the first one, who then uses all this time to accept another offer.

I think it is reasonable to give an exploding offer to someone who is done with his flyouts and you know has other offer(s). But to give it to someone who has a flyout to a better school and make it explode before that flyout just signals that you are unfair and also insecure in your ability to hire. Who will you end up hiring?

As people say, it is potentially problematic to renege on an offer. I wouldn't plan on it.

I think your best move is to pretty much lay your cards on the table. Talk to the place with the exploding offer and say you are hesitant to take it right now and an extension would be really helpful. Depending on the reasons behind the exploding offer, you might get somewhere. It might be pressure from above pushing the exploding offer. It might be that they just want to push things along as fast as possible if there is no reason not to, but are willing to accommodate requests. If they made you an offer, they want you to take it. They also probably don't want to feel you were strong-armed into coming.

Talk to the places where you are flying out and explain the situation. Maybe they can move the time frame up a little. Maybe they can give you an indication on how likely you are to get the jobs.

Talk to your advisor. He can not only advise you on the situation, he might be able to push these discussions or do them discretely.

If you get nowhere, you have to make a choice. My advice would be, if you are fairly happy with the school with the exploding offer and you can't do anything about it, take it and put the rest out of your mind. The job market is full of what-would-have-beens, and if you have a job you are happy with you have achieved the main objective.

Note to all you newbies: don't do this. In twenty years they'll still be talking about how bad you burned them.

My advice is always: take the offer if you have no choice, but don't feel bad reneging if a better offer comes along. I'm sure the snowflake search committees will get over it.

That's very noble of you, my little buttercup, but that is not how the real world works. One week and ten-day deadlines are very common these days, and shorter ones are also becoming common. It's all about bargaining power. Facing a one week deadline, I suggest the candidate bargain for 1) more money; 2) delayed teaching; or 3) better benefits, just to name a few. Offers are rare for most candidates. A short deadline helps to clear the market.

OK guys, let me clear up some confusion. We offer one week, that is not exploding, that is standard. Exploding is two days or less. We understand that it takes people time to contact their other options for the possibility of a counter-offer, but we also need to hire someone, and the market clears quickly.

Poor advice. Still jerbed it though. I also go through my life constantly asking: "What would Phelps do here."

What would Michael Phelps do? What would Bruce Lee do? They would accept the offer like a man, and then renege if they get a better one. They would punch the dean in the nose if he makes a big deal out of it. Be alpha. Do what you want. YOLO.

Are you the last fly-out at both of these places? Most departments don't make an offer until they fly out all the candidates. Even if you are the last candidate at both places, the department has to schedule a meeting (earliest the day afterward), then get approval from the Dean, and in some cases, approval from HR. In other words, if you have two fly-outs remaining then it could be that you wouldn't find out for another week and a half whether or not you get an offer.

The market is moving fast right now. If they gave you a very short timeframe, they're not going to extend it by more than a week.

As people say, it is potentially problematic to renege on an offer. I wouldn't plan on it.
I think your best move is to pretty much lay your cards on the table. Talk to the place with the exploding offer and say you are hesitant to take it right now and an extension would be really helpful. Depending on the reasons behind the exploding offer, you might get somewhere. It might be pressure from above pushing the exploding offer. It might be that they just want to push things along as fast as possible if there is no reason not to, but are willing to accommodate requests. If they made you an offer, they want you to take it. They also probably don't want to feel you were strong-armed into coming.
Talk to the places where you are flying out and explain the situation. Maybe they can move the time frame up a little. Maybe they can give you an indication on how likely you are to get the jobs.
Talk to your advisor. He can not only advise you on the situation, he might be able to push these discussions or do them discretely.
If you get nowhere, you have to make a choice. My advice would be, if you are fairly happy with the school with the exploding offer and you can't do anything about it, take it and put the rest out of your mind. The job market is full of what-would-have-beens, and if you have a job you are happy with you have achieved the main objective.

I think this is the best advice. If you are honest about your situation and preferences, you minimize risk of reputational damage and you maximize the chance that schools will demonstrate good faith in return by giving what you ask for.

Are you the last fly-out at both of these places? Most departments don't make an offer until they fly out all the candidates. Even if you are the last candidate at both places, the department has to schedule a meeting (earliest the day afterward), then get approval from the Dean, and in some cases, approval from HR. In other words, if you have two fly-outs remaining then it could be that you wouldn't find out for another week and a half whether or not you get an offer.
The market is moving fast right now. If they gave you a very short timeframe, they're not going to extend it by more than a week.

True enough. But if you need to know fast, talking to them might work. They might be able to say whether or not there is an offer in the works within a day or two of the flyout if he is last. Turning down an offer in hand would be a a small gamble if the other one isn't on paper yet. But much less risky than gambling just based on having a flyout.

There are times to be cagey with information about your market. But I don't think this is one. He has a decent bargaining position, but is crunched for time. So there is no time for games. He is best just to lay things out and say "here is how it is. If you can some how get me an offer by this date, I would love to come to your school. Otherwise, I have to take this offer I have in hand."

OK guys, let me clear up some confusion. We offer one week, that is not exploding, that is standard. Exploding is two days or less. We understand that it takes people time to contact their other options for the possibility of a counter-offer, but we also need to hire someone, and the market clears quickly.

I don't think the time-frame is the main issue, it is the flexibility. I think it can be ok to give a candidate as little as 48-72 hours if they are not waiting on anything, and they have all of the offers they are likely to get. But if candidate says "I would really like a short extension for this specific reason", and the school says no, they are playing games to try to strong arm the candidate into coming.

<48h offer because "the market clears quickly" is often a sign of your own incompetence. You could have made offers earlier too.

If there is a good reason you need a fast answer, say so and communicate. I know of a friend in a past market who got an exploding offer from a good place (top 50, easily). He was too good (he interviewed at the ASSA with the sacred zipcodes) but he had a good idiosyncratic reason for wanting that place. They told him "OK, we want you, but answer fast 'cause you're a reach and we don't have time to wait for your market to reveal itself". They were 100% honest about this and communicated clearly. He accepted the offer and is very happy.

If you're just trying to get a risk-averse candidate by cutting is/her market short and preventing them to get their better/dream choice, you're being a dick. Self-interested, sure, but still a dick. I would have no qualms in reneging on such an offer, the market will not punish a JMC for this six years down the road, you guys have done way too much game theory.

Also: either the JMC is a bit of a lemon, and you just hired a lemon for 7 years. Or he's not, and he'll be moving away in a few years because you weren't such a good match anyway. I'm not even sure you want this as a hiring strategy.

One more suggestion in the vein of honesty: fess up to the committee that you aren't in a position to consider an offer yet, because your fly-outs aren't done. That's neither accepting nor rejecting, but frees them to move to the next person on the list while you finish your fly-outs. Worse case scenario is that person says yes, and your other options don't pan out. But if all your fly-outs are as good or better, your chances of getting another offer are pretty good.

You can't accept the offer and then continue to do fly-outs. Anyone who tells you to do this should be ignored. If the school found out, they would rescind the offer. Your advisor would be pissed as hell at you for being such an idiot and making him/her look bad (you are also asking him/her to lie for you, if those other schools call to find out how your market is going). It isn't the same thing at all as turning down a provisional acceptance when a much better offer comes in (which does sometimes happen) because in that situation you have two job offers in hand, not one.